Obama, Biden unite to call for change

Saturday

Aug 23, 2008 at 12:01 AMAug 23, 2008 at 10:23 PM

Like a team of sprinters who will run a relay to Nov. 4, U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden announced their partnership to an adoring — but sweaty — crowd Saturday at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.

Bernard Schoenburg

Like a team of sprinters who will run a relay to Nov. 4, U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden announced their partnership to an adoring — but sweaty — crowd Saturday at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.

Only hours after news broke that Obama had chosen Biden of Delaware as his running mate, the two faced the nation for the first time as a pair in front of the Old State Capitol.

“For months, I’ve searched for a leader to finish this journey alongside me and to join me in making Washington work for the American people,” Obama said.

“It’s good to be back in Springfield – feels like I’m comin’ home,” Obama said, as he noted that on a much colder day – when temperatures barely topped 10 degrees – he had announced his presidential run in the same place in his home state back on Feb. 10, 2007.

“Today, I have come back to Springfield to tell you that I’ve found that leader – a man with a distinguished record, a man with fundamental decency,” Obama said. “And that man is Joe Biden.”

Biden, who was among Democrats who battled Obama for the Democratic nomination in early primaries, lavished praise on his new running mate.

“No one knows better than I do that presidential campaigns are crucibles in which you’re tested and challenged every single day,” Biden said. “And over the past 18 months, I’ve watched Barack meet those challenges with judgment, intelligence and steel in his spine. I’ve watched as he’s inspired millions of Americans. … There’s something about Barack Obama that allows him to bring people together like no one I have worked with and seen.”

With temperatures that went into the upper 80s, and hours of waiting as a crowd estimated at 20,000 to 35,000 went through metal detectors and filled downtown streets around the historic Old State Capitol, some in the crowd succumbed to the heat. But the program wasn’t long by political standards. Obama began speaking about 2 p.m. as promised, and Biden ended the program by about 2:40.

The imagery of standing in front of a building in which Abraham Lincoln served was obvious, and Biden referred to it.

“President Lincoln once instructed us to be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm,” Biden said. “Today, Springfield, I know my feet are in the right place. And I am proud to stand firm for the next president … Barack Obama.”

Tom Schwartz, the Illinois state historian, said he doesn’t think candidates can overuse Lincoln.

“We see William Shakespeare plays more than once,” Schwartz said. “And there’s a lot to be learned from this setting, from Lincoln. … I think using Lincoln as a backdrop is always good politics.”

Obama and Biden both wore white shirts with rolled-up long sleeves, and Obama had a red tie and Biden a blue one. A giant American flag was draped over a nearby building, making a backdrop for pictures from one of the camera risers set up for the event. At the end of the speeches, Obama’s wife, Michelle, and Biden’s wife, Jill, came on stage to go arm in arm, wave and greet close-up fans.

Experience factor

Republicans have criticized Obama for his relative youth at 47, and lack of Senate experience, while his GOP opponent, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is a Washington veteran.

While Biden, 65, has been in the Senate since 1973, Obama said Biden is a “rare mix” who has “brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn’t changed him. He’s an expert on foreign policy whose heart and values are firmly rooted in the middle class.”

He also said that Biden has been tested by tragedy – including the auto accident that killed his first wife and a daughter, and his decision thereafter to always return home to Wilmington, Del., each night after Senate sessions, as he raised his boys for a time as a single dad.

“Out of the heartbreak of that unspeakable accident, he did more than become a Senator, he raised a family,” Obama said.

On the attack?

It is often a running mate who scores more direct hits on an opponent than a presidential candidate, and while Obama has recently been returning fire on McCain for criticism McCain has heaped on him, Biden also exhibited Saturday that he will not be shy about criticizing McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam.

While Biden said McCain is “genuinely a friend of mine” and has “served our country with extraordinary courage,” he also said the “harsh truth” is that McCain’s policies have been too close to those of President George Bush.

“These times call for a total change in Washington’s world view,” Biden said. “These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader.

“You can’t change America when you know your first four years as president will look exactly like the last eight years of George Bush’s presidency,” Biden said, referring to McCain.

Likes the fighter

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who has campaigned for Obama in several states, attended the event and likes the fact that Biden is “a fighter. That’s what we need.

He also likened Obama choosing Biden to John F. Kennedy choosing a congressional veteran, Lyndon Johnson, as his running mate in the 1960 election.

“If you look at Kennedy, who was young and represented change and hope, he went and got Lyndon Johnson, who knew how Washington worked a little bit, but who was well respected there,” Giannoulias said. “It’s good to have that team together.”

Next up

Obama, visiting battleground states, is scheduled to be in Eau Claire, Wis., today; the Iowa side of the Quad Cities area on Monday, Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday; Billings, Mont., on Wednesday; and Denver on Thursday – the final day of the Democratic National Convention when he delivers his acceptance speech.